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PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
VOL. III. SEPTEMBER, 1894. NO•7•
BASKET BALL FOR WOMEN.
By SENDA BERENSON.
Director of Physical Training,
Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
The value of athletic sports for men is not questioned. It is a different matter, however, when we speak of athletics for women. Until very re¬cent years, the so-called ideaI"woman was a small waisted, small footed, small brained damsel, who prided her¬self on her delicate health, who thought fainting interesting, and hysterics fas-cinating. Wider and more thorough knowledge has given us more whole¬some and saner ideas. The fainting, hysterical maiden is now treat<:!d as a nervous patient, and in her place is put the glowing, happy creature who advocates strongly "Mens sana in cor¬pore sano. She does not go into athletics to outdo nor imitate her brother as some would have us believe. She does not run the danger of having professionalism creep into her .athlet¬ics. She realizes more and more that by developing her body by as scientific and thorough means as her mind¬making the former a means for the lat¬ter-do'es she reach the highest devel¬opment of true womanhood.
Nowhere is there quite the opportu¬nity for physical training, unless it be a normal school for that purpose, as in a college. The college girl lives by her schedule. Every hour is filled, but no hour offers a dozen things that clamor to be done at once. She has her lecture hours, study hours, hours for gymnastics and recreation. Phy¬sical training in colleges is fast be¬coming recognized as important as mental training. Class drills and in¬dividual work in the gymnasium are not taken now merely for fun or be¬cause they look pretty, but as a means for harmonious physical development. From interest in gymnastic work has developed a greater interest in athlet¬ics. It is the purpose of this article to speak more fully of Basket Ball, the game that has helped to develop the athletic spirit in women more than any other, that has given us the best results, and aroused the greatest en¬thusiasm.
Women have long felt the need of some sport that would combine both the physical development of gymnas¬tics and the abandon and delight of true play. Gymnastic work develops the best physical possibilities in the bodily apparatus; gymnastic games and athletic sports, when used intelli¬gently, not only become a part of gymnastics by furnishing one way of developing those physical possibilities, but as an outcome of that gives the in¬dividual an opportunity to try those possibilities as he will and does in life. This lack of some suitable athletic game for women is well filled by Bas¬ket Ball, as it is a game that requires the action of every part of the body, that develops physical courage, self¬reliance, quickness, alertness; and no one who has ever seen it played can question the enthusiasm it arouses.
When the game was described in PHYSICAL EDUCATION two years ago, we immediately saw its great possibili¬ties and forthwith began to play it.

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
VOL. III. SEPTEMBER, 1894. NO•7•
BASKET BALL FOR WOMEN.
By SENDA BERENSON.
Director of Physical Training,
Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
The value of athletic sports for men is not questioned. It is a different matter, however, when we speak of athletics for women. Until very re¬cent years, the so-called ideaI"woman was a small waisted, small footed, small brained damsel, who prided her¬self on her delicate health, who thought fainting interesting, and hysterics fas-cinating. Wider and more thorough knowledge has given us more whole¬some and saner ideas. The fainting, hysterical maiden is now treat